Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada

Transcript of Bhakti-Shastri class on this verse by Chaitanya Charan

Next verse Sri Krishna describes how there is competition between modes

Bg 14.10

rajas tamaś cābhibhūya
sattvaṁ bhavati bhārata
rajaḥ sattvaṁ tamaś caiva
tamaḥ sattvaṁ rajas tathā

Synonyms: 

rajaḥ — the mode of passion; tamaḥ — the mode of ignorance; ca — also; abhibhūya — surpassing; sattvam — the mode of goodness; bhavati — becomes prominent; bhārata — O son of Bharata; rajaḥ — the mode of passion; sattvam — the mode of goodness; tamaḥ — the mode of ignorance; ca — also; eva — like that; tamaḥ — the mode of ignorance; sattvam — the mode of goodness; rajaḥ — the mode of passion; tathā — thus.

Translation: 

Sometimes the mode of goodness becomes prominent, defeating the modes of passion and ignorance, O son of Bharata. Sometimes the mode of passion defeats goodness and ignorance, and at other times ignorance defeats goodness and passion. In this way there is always competition for supremacy.

 

So this way a person feels unsteady because these modes act at different times in different ways. E.g. picture of person pulled like puppets. These three modes are neither discrete nor static in terms of how they affect us in our lives. Not static means not that in morning we feel goodness and whole day is like that or in class in the beginning we may be very interested in beginning which shows mode of goodness as we wanted to learn but as the class progresses other modes start pulling us like taking nap in class because thinking that yesterday I slept 5 min less or thinking that I have other works to do when the class will get over. In case of genuine reasons also these things can come and we need to address them but sometime it affects our psychology without any urgency. 

We should not feel lethargy in spiritual life thinking it is meant to give me relaxation, spiritual life gives relaxation because of purification and not because of deactivation. 

So characteristics of three modes are:

Goodness: Contemplative and Active

Passion: Simply active but not very contemplative.

Ignorance: Neither active nor contemplative.

So externally sometimes goodness and ignorance appear to very similar but they are different, e.g. in a class in the temple one person didn’t attend and goes away saying I have other things to do, one person is attentively hearing in the class but other is calmly sleeping in class so these two person are in the class but in different modes.

Although modes are lateral one above other but we can directly go from one mode to any other mode e.g. chanting attentively to directly sleeping sometime passion can be used to counter ignorance example walking and chanting.

In this way there is competition between modes and we all have to battle this competition and overcome this competition. We have to battle this competition and overcome lower modes by higher modes. If I come to a cross road and there is fork so at fork which road I choose accordingly my destination will come, now imagine a road in which there is a fork at every moment so our situation is like that continuously we have to choose should I be in goodness, passion or ignorance? How I act accordingly our life will move forward. So we have to consistently choose mode of goodness, so this conflict is going on and this will make sense in much of the confusion we experience in our life. Sometimes we feel one way another time we feel another way and we cannot understand why my feelings are changing so rapidly, so the way to understand this is by recognizing that all these are because of the modes, so rather than carried away by modes we understand that this is goodness, this is passion and this is ignorance let me choose goodness. And as we choose goodness it will increase within me. But basically these modes are in conflict. 

So in 6,7 & 8 Krishna has given introductory characteristics of how the modes binds. Now after talking about the competition and conflicts between various modes now Krishna will tell based on which modes overtakes what will be physiological condition of the person that is described in 11,12,13

So 11th is described about mode of goodness like 6th 

So 12th is described about mode of passion like 7th 

So 13th is described about mode of ignorance like 8th 

SP connects modes with action which will be explored much in the later chapters.

SP Purport: By the manifestation of particular activities, it can be understood in what mode of nature one is situated.

End of transcription.